


Strange Waters

by Unforth



Series: Prompt Ficlets: Supernatural [35]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Arranged Marriage, First Meetings, M/M, Merman Castiel, Merman Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 12:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforth/pseuds/Unforth
Summary: Dean is nervous about his arranged marriage, but he'll do what's best for his kingdom.





	Strange Waters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saawek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saawek/gifts).



> I wrote this for saawek, based on her exquisite sketches of mer!Dean and mer!Cas. (artwork shared with her permission)  
> 

Dean gushed water out his gills, adjusted his crown, and swam forward. Despite his nerves, he kept his grip on his trident casual. His entourage had been left behind, even Charlie, even Sam.

He had to do this alone.

A shimmery curtain suffused the water ahead of him, marking the place where his demesne ended and that of the Angelfish began.

No more hesitation.

Dean breached the border.

Nothing changed. He’d expected it would be different, colder water perhaps, or a different oxygen concentration, or something. He should have known better. The ocean cared nothing for their arbitrary delineations.

“Who dares enter our Kingdom?” A deep voice thrummed through the depths.

Okay, maybe things were different here. He’d never heard the like among his own people.

“King Dean of Lawrencia.” He felt like an idiot, speaking to the empty depths. But the depths had spoken to him, so…

Rays of light scattered blue through the shifting currents, fragmented amidst clusters of bubbles. The water twinkled like a field of bioluminescent plankton disturbed in the dark of night or depths of the midnight zone, but neither was possible. It was daytime, the water relatively shallow, stretching hundreds of feet deeper beneath him. Waves eddied around him, something niggling at the corner of his eye. Alarmed, he swirled, fins flaring diaphanous around him, cloaking his movements as he took his trident in both hands and assumed a defensive position.

There was nothing there, save the intangible shimmer he’d passed through moments before.

Movement taunted him from just out of sight.

Dean twirled to look behind and froze, gawking. The recently empty waters were crowded with Merfolk with the distinctive fins of the angelfish. They watched him impassively, arranged in ranks, adorned in finest shells and gems, heads bedecked with living corals and plants, headdresses of anemones and sea urchins. Dean’s immediate instinct was to think himself under attack until he realized…

They were wearing their best.

This was what had come for.

“As agreed,” he said, trying to keep tension and unhappiness from his voice, “I offer myself in marriage to the merperson of your choice. Let our union forge a lasting peace between our kingdoms.”

No one replied, but the crowd parted and motes shone red in the water, a pathway forward. Gushing out a stressed stream of bubbles, Dean proceeded. The Angelfish watched his progress silently. The waters before him cleared, and he finally saw his intended.

The merman was gorgeous, elegant, his fins as veils around his sleek body, the scales of his tail as dazzling as a faceted sapphire, and even more blue. The flows that washed around him glimmered, crackled with power.

One of the legendary Angelfish magic workers.

Wow.

“I am Castiel of Heaven,” intoned the man, the same voice as had greeted Dean upon his arrival. “I will be your husband.”

Dean stared.

The alliance had been meant as a marriage of equals. Dean believed himself…*was*…the equal of any merfolk in the ocean.

Or so he’d thought.

Until now. Until he learned magicians were real.

*I am so screwed.*

“Let the wedding ceremony proceed.”

**Author's Note:**

> Wanna read more ficlets, and see loads of reblogged art? Follow me on [Tumblr!](http://unforth-ninawaters.tumblr.com/)


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